India eyes stealth fighter plane

Chennai:Â India will soon join the elite league of na­t­i­ons to desing and pr­oduce mid-c­ombat ai­r­­craft with stealth ca­p­ability.

âDefence Research and Development Or­g­­­anisation has alr­ea­dy come up wi­th light combat air­c­­raft (LCA) and in the next phase we are working on a mid combat air­cr­aft (MCA) with ste­a­lth capability. The str­ucture and design has to be made in such a way that th­ey remain invisible to the ra­d­ar,â Dr A. Siva­th­anu Pillai, ch­ief co­nt­r­oller (res­ea­r­ch and dev­elopment)Â at DR­DO, said on the sideli­nes of Kur­uks­hetra, An­na Univ­er­s­ityâs an­nual technical festival.

The Aeronautical De­velopment Agency (ADA), Bengaluru, has started to design the aircraft and Hin­d­ustan Aeronautics Li­m­ited would manufa­cture it, Dr Pillai said, adding that in the next stage DRDO would do a lot of dev­elopment work for the aircraft.

Pointing out that to enhance research and innovation in the co­untry, DRDO had bro­ught over 250 universities including An­na University under one umbrella organisati­on, Dr Pillai said.Â More than 250 universities had joined ha­nds with DRDO to de­v­­elop new products for the betterment of the nation, he said.

âDRDO has set up a de­dicated research bo­­ard to guide and as­sess projects dev­elo­p­ed by education institutes in electronic wa­rfare, cyber warfare, ra­dar and under wa­ter systems,â he said.

Dr Pillai, who is also the CEO and managing director of Bra­hmos aerospace, info­rmed that the company in the next stage would come up with air launch version of the missile which could be fired off fr­om Sukhoi aircraft.